University sets up a campus warning network for free

By eSchool News

October 9th, 2008

Elon University needed to come up with a campus-wide emergency notification system that integrated with all the possible warning-delivery systems already installed on campus–and the school managed to pull it off for free, reports Network World. A no-cost download of a web-browser scripting product makes the system possible, IT officials from the Burlington, N.C., school told the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, also known as ACUTA. Association members share technology challenges and the solutions that come up in an effort to address common problems in a cost-effective way. Using iMacro from iOpus, the school can trigger alerts via its campus voice-over-IP network, digital signage, eMail system, screen pop-ups on computer lab machines, and outdoor sirens. The school is considering adding instant messaging warnings, URL redirection from school computers, a university cable information channel, and the campus radio station, says Eccles Wall, assistant directory for networking and telecommunications at Elon. iMacro is installed on a PC within the school’s data center, where it is considered physically safe. It can be accessed through a virtual private network and manipulated via remote control, Wall says. He demonstrated it at the ACUTA conference in Boston, accessing the iMacro dashboard and initiating a storm warning to be displayed as digital signage on a monitor in the IT department. In actual use, the signage would be posted on screens linked to the school’s cable TV network…